PC games

Valve has given us a better idea of when it plans to launch the beta for Steam's Big Picture Mode. Steam Big Picture Mode, as many of you already know, allows players to hook up their computers to their televisions and play the games in their Steam library on the big screen. In the latest episode of GameTrailers TV (which features a rather hairy-looking Gabe Newell) Valve's Greg Coomer announced that the beta will be coming early next month.

The release date for World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is right around the corner, and as such, Blizzard has started to ramp up the marketing. Today we're being treated to a brand new cinematic trailer for the game, and we have to say it's pretty excellent. The question is: will it be enough to get players interested in returning to World of Warcraft?

It's been nearly 10 long years since SimCity 4 was unleashed, and next February, we'll finally be getting a new installment in the main franchise. Electronic Arts and Maxis seem to be making a number of changes with in SimCity, and if you want to check it out ahead of time, you might be pleased to know that you can now register to be in the upcoming closed beta. Of course, you may not get in, but you'll never know unless you try.

We already told you that Electronic Arts used its Gamescom press conference to reveal Battlefield 3 Premium Edition, but it was also there that the release date for Dead Space 3 was announced. The latest installment in the excellent Dead Space series will launch on February 5, 2013 in the US and February 8 in Europe, so get ready to go to war with the Necropmorphs all over again. Electronic Arts also announced that those who pre-order Dead Space 3 will be getting a free upgrade to the Limited Edition, which includes two DLC bundles.

It's Gamescom week, and Electronic Arts has kicked things off by announcing Battlefield 3 Premium Edition. No, that isn't a typo - Battlefield 3 is indeed getting a new edition, 10 months after release. As the name suggests, this new version of Battlefield 3 comes packed with a membership to Battlefield Premium, so if you've held out on buying Battlefield 3, this might be worth checking out.

Minecraft's popularity just keeps on growing and growing, as Mojang announced today that the PC version of the beloved indie game has passed 7 million sales. Mojang's Daniel Kaplan announced the milestone today through Twitter, saying "More than 7 million minecraft (pc) copies sold!" Not too bad for a game that was started (and mostly developed) by one person.

Valve has announced that the Steam Community will soon be going through a major change, but like everything Valve does, it's revealing this "major" update at its own pace. That is to say that Valve will be announcing a new feature every day this week, and today we were introduced to Game Hubs. A Game Hub serves as something as a catch-all for the content related to a game, and every title available on Steam will be getting one.

Last month, Ubisoft stuck with tradition and announced that the PC version of Assassin's Creed III had been delayed. At the time, the publisher didn't give a new release date for the title, only saying that it would be out before Christmas. Now we know when Assassin's Creed III will be arriving on PC, with Ubisoft giving it a release date of November 20 in North America and November 23 in the UK.

Rovio has introduced a new character for Angry Birds Seasons, a pink-feathered fowl who apparently likes to blow bubbles. This new bird, named simply "Pink Bird," will be debuting in a new update for the immensely popular game. Alas, we don't know when the update is scheduled to land, but with Rovio giving the update the title of "Back to School," it seems it should be arriving before long.

If you've played military shooter ArmA 2, chances are you've heard of DayZ, a mod that turns the game into a multiplayer open world zombie-fest where no one is to be trusted as you struggle to survive. The mod is brilliant, if not a little rough around the edges in this early stage, and perhaps that's why ArmA 2 developer Bohemia Interactive has decided to turn it into a full release. DayZ creator Dean "Rocket" Hall announced the game today, saying that he will become project lead with Bohemia Interactive acting as publisher.